


Heart of a Dream

by Peach_Pit



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Anxiety, Birthday, Comfort, Devotion, Dreams, Love, Lucid Dreaming, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 09:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13610298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peach_Pit/pseuds/Peach_Pit
Summary: King Ignis Scientia finds solace in dreams.





	Heart of a Dream

If anyone ever tried to tell Ignis that Noctis was gone, he would not accept it.

For even after the procession, the wake, laying his body to rest, he felt a presence with him. No, the True King, his true friend and brother, the most powerful man he’d ever met, the single person in this world who he loved most, would not simply  _ disappear  _ from this world.

Like the veins, the arteries of the body, his essence was sewn into the world’s being, there from the moment the light shed across the land and never to cease; and while those who had never known him may never feel it, Ignis would. He would with every breath, with every blink and step.

He would take Noctis with him into his ensuing rule.

Ignis had Prompto and Gladiolus, and he had the love and support of the people of Lucis, certainly, as he took hold of the renewed land of light and began to guide it, but his taste of the immortal lingered. His yearning for the immaterial hung on. The stress of living while rebuilding the world took its toll. He felt empty without  _ him  _ there beside him, even after the long years separating them. Even when his aura lingered in the air. Perhaps  _ because  _ of it.

Some days, he remembered being Judged -- he remembered what had been rent from him in his devoted fury. Remembering this, some days, he felt barely worthy of carrying on, even on days where his life was being celebrated.

Especially those days.

He thought,  _ I, too, should have no regrets. _

Yet still, the heart wants what it wants, feels what it feels.

His heart often remembered the last thing he’d ever seen.

Some nights, while he lay lonesome and cold in a bed fit for royalty, he could swear he felt someone else lying in bed beside him, a sink, a  _ presence _ . His dear King felt so close to him, and with that feeling came warmth. He felt arms lace around from behind him to pull him close into a warm chest, a face buried against his shoulders, even a faint brush of hair. His own hands, like magnets, would move to join the embrace of a pair of palms.

On nights like this, when finally the warmth would carry him to sleep, he would dream. And everything would happen that could assuage his fears: reassurance, guidance, levity. Noctis took his hand as they traveled down the pier, and with his touch went all the fear, the doubt. With those, the darkness as well. He saw a vivid world, the world he knew, the world  _ this  _ world could someday be again: the idyllic waters of the Quay, the peaceful woodlands of the Cape, homes away from home, memories upon memories. He saw a Noctis that he could hardly have imagined before, a man mature and even more gorgeous, with eyes that knew happiness and contentment, a touch free of tension, whose generosity was boundless.

Sometimes scenes would play out like days they’d lived before, and Ignis would say all the things he’d feared saying, lest he break the Prince’s times of peace.

_ “Noct, I would do anything for you.” “Noct, you’re...special to me.” “Noct, I treasure you.” _

Nothing ever came quite right, even now, yet as he received those words, Noctis would always grace Ignis with a tender smile. Yes, even those words were enough. Noctis understood that more than anybody.

_ “I’m so proud of you, Iggy.” “You’re dear to me, Iggy.” “I’ll always be with you, Iggy.” _

When the dreams were new -- when Noctis took Ignis to a place in his heart, a beautiful realm made just for them, and Ignis truly saw the strong man he had become -- Ignis allowed himself to become lost in the great ocean of his eyes. Sometimes he didn’t realize how much he’d missed those until he dreamed again. And again. Each time, a fresh bout of fondness.

Sprawling tapestries, glowing candles, meals for two, all paling to the color of his eyes.

Eyes he’d nearly died for. A man he was content just to be near. The man who completed him.

Waking from these dreams into darkness, Ignis still felt Noctis’s embrace. It pressed into him the things that he had seen, that he had felt in their special realm, as if to keep them there, before easing back into his consciousness.

Whenever Ignis began to lose that feeling, Noct returned to him again.

_ “I’m here, Iggy. _

_ “Happy birthday.” _

**Author's Note:**

> Ignis deserves the world's love.
> 
> I'm doing some short stories based on the situational prompts over at [Ingoct Week](https://ignoctweek.tumblr.com)! These are being cross-posted from my public tumblr.
> 
> Please also visit my [other (R18 only) tumblr](https://lil-peach-pit.tumblr.com) for fun things.


End file.
